


Loud American

by DesireeArmfeldt



Series: Sounds of Silence [2]
Category: due South
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: ds_snippets | dsc6dsnippets, Deaf Character, Friendship, Gen, POV Third Person Limited, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 04:17:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6688840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesireeArmfeldt/pseuds/DesireeArmfeldt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser's early impressions of Ray Vecchio.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loud American

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt “The temptation/To take the precious things we have apart/To see how they work" [“Do I Have to Paint You a Picture?”, Billy Bragg] at ds-snippets.

Ray Vecchio is loud.

Fraser can’t hear him, of course, but he can tell, even without Dief’s confirmation. He sees Ray’s volume in the distance people leave when they converse with him, in the way Ray shouts across rooms.

Ray chatters constantly, careless of the direction he’s facing, so that Fraser only catches about half of what he says. Between Ray’s rapid delivery, American colloquialisms, and idiosyncratic worldview, Fraser only comprehends half of what he does make out.

Ray is rude and careless, but when he has important information to impart, he does make sure Fraser can see his lips. He’ll touch Fraser to get his attention before talking (much as Dief does, but few humans ever have). He also takes other people vehemently to task for failing to address Fraser face-on. (Dief-like again, in his fierce protectiveness.)

So Fraser infers that the majority of Ray’s chatter serves some purpose other than communication. Or, at least, that the words are largely extraneous to the message.

Ray is also loud metaphorically: in the gaudy colors of his shirts, his expansive hand gestures, his emotions, his opinions, his affections, his loyalty. (He claimed Fraser in a lonely diner, just as a wolf pup once did in a mineshaft.)

Now and then Fraser wonders what on Earth he is doing here in this smelly, claustrophobic, cruel city. And then he takes out the badge proclaiming him a consultant to the Chicago Police Department, which enables him to pay the rent of this apartment, which Ray calls a slum and a rat-trap and other terms that Fraser has yet to decipher. Ray handed him the badge along with a Wolf License, a look of casual irritation on his face, and it is all the explanation Fraser needs.


End file.
